For the installation of manufacturing equipment, and particularly when installing wafer fabrication equipment at a factory location, it becomes necessary to provide a separate structure to support the heavy tool and to transfer the weight thereof to the underlying floor (for example, a poured concrete waffle-grid floor). The equipment support structure is separate from the building support structure and typically comprises a plurality of fabricated support legs which each extend up from one of the solid sections of the underlying waffle-grid floor to engage a mounting foot on the underside of the equipment. The support legs, which may be steel jacks or poured concrete piers, are generally custom-fabricated for the installation, which necessarily requires additional time and expenditure. Crossbeam members attached to the support legs may also be required to support the weight of the equipment, particularly for irregularly-shaped systems for which a given mounting foot may not align to a solid section of the underlying flooring. In addition, if raised flooring is needed for access to the equipment, the prior art support method requires that yet another set of structural supports be installed to support the raised flooring.
The Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Institute (hereinafter “SEMI”) has proposed a standard support structure to be used for all semiconductor factory locations. The proposed structure is a free-standing rectangular pedestal having a rectangular base with a plurality of legs positioned so as to evenly transmit the suspended weight of the equipment to the underlying floor structures. The legs of the SEMI pedestal extend up from the interstices of the waffle-grid floor at the basement or other facilities level beneath the manufacturing level flooring (or “raised flooring”), to support the rectangular base at the manufacturing level. The SEMI pedestal's rectangular base includes a plurality of connection points for bringing facilities (e.g., vacuum forelines, gas supply lines, electrical conduits, evacuation lines, etc.) from the lower facilities level up to the equipment level, and additionally includes floor support flanges attached at the periphery of the rectangular base to support raised flooring for operator access to the manufacturing equipment.
What has been proposed for installing manufacturing equipment in the SEMI pedestal is that, using a datum point which is outside of the rectangular base, the manufacturing equipment is aligned on the rectangular pedestal in such a way that an operator can access the machine from a position on the raised floor. The manufacturing equipment is then supported by crossbeams and cantilevers which attach to the rectangular base. As necessary, additional customized support legs may also be required when installing equipment on the SEMI pedestal. The advantages of using the SEMI pedestal include the fact that the pedestal may be of standard size, thereby providing a reference size for architects and construction personnel. In addition, with the standard pedestal having pre-established facilities connection locations, the manufacturing site can be pre-plumbed for provision of facilities such as vacuum lines, etc.
Drawbacks to the proposed SEMI pedestal include the customization necessary to ensure adequate support of irregularly-shaped equipment (i.e., neither rectangular nor to scale with the pedestal frame) and the retrofitting necessary to bring the facilities from the pre-plumbed locations on the rectangular base to the actual facilities connection points on the manufacturing equipment. Particularly when dealing with gas flow lines and evacuation lines, any additional line length and/or bends in the lines can have a major impact on the flow through the lines and consequently on the equipment and the processing conducted by the equipment.
Accordingly, an improved apparatus and method for providing pre-plumbing of facilities for manufacturing equipment installation is desired.